Introduction to Behavioural Biology Learning Outcomes

Suject specific

• Being familiar with ethological and (comparative) psychological approaches to animal behavior, as well as behavioral ecology and cognitive ethology.
• Being familiar with aspects of sensory ecology and neuroethology (optional).
• Being familiar with history of animal behavior research, classical ethology and animal (comparative) psychology (optional).
• Basic knowledge of key concepts of evolutionary biology as the theoretical basis of the comparative approach to behavior and cognition
• Ability to understand and use core terminology of behavioral biology, including perception, motivation, behavioral development, reproduction, social systems, communication
• Basic familiarity with theoretical or systems biology as a framework for relating an organism’s activities to a) the activities of populations in an ecological context and b) the organism’s regulatory systems, including the nervous system (behavioral endocrinology, neuroethology)
• Being familiar with the notion of cognitive functions as an adaptive response to environmental problems (for example memory and decision making in foraging behavior, social functions of cognition, etc.)
• Basic understanding of the notion of ecological validity and its implications to experimental settings

Methodological

• Being familiar with basic approaches and techniques to observe, measure, record, to manipulate, analyze and interpret animal behavior in the field as well as under laboratory conditions

Go back to Disciplinary Modules.